Issued by: House of Representatives Liaison

Better recognition of volunteers, a broader definition of volunteering and greater encouragement of young volunteers are among key issues raised in a discussion paper presented to federal parliament last night by the House of Representatives Family and Community Committee. The paper encourages a dynamic, innovative and sustainable voluntary sector, and recognises the potential for growth in corporate volunteering. The ideas in the paper draw on discussions the committee conducted at a forum in Sydney earlier in the year.

Releasing the discussion paper, Committee Chair, Ms Annette Ellis MP, said: "Volunteering has long been a tradition in Australia, and its importance to building strong and inclusive communities is as great today as it always has been. There are indications, however, that the rates and patterns of volunteering are changing. Many organisations, including community based organisations that rely heavily on their volunteers to deliver social services, are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain volunteers."

To address this challenge, the Committee supports the need for community based organisations to be increasingly proactive and innovative in their interactions with groups of potential volunteers, including younger people and people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

According to the Committee, the growth of corporate volunteering presents the voluntary and private sectors with a host of new opportunities which have yet to be fully realised.

"To fully harness this potential, the Committee strongly encourages continued dialogue and engagement between businesses and not-for-profit organisations," Ms Ellis said.

The discussion paper also examines some of the challenges facing community based organisations and their volunteers as they seek to comply with increasingly complex administrative and legislative requirements.

"The Committee is aware of the potential drain on limited resources associated with legal and regulatory compliance resources that might otherwise be used for delivery of services. To alleviate the burden of compliance, the Committee advocates for the simplification and standardisation of requirements where possible," Ms Ellis said.

Copies of the paper can be obtained from the Committee’s webpage at: Have you got About the House magazine yet?
Visit: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/news

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/fchy/vol_report/report.pdf

 Discussion paper encourages corporate and young volunteers

Web of lies and spies
By Rama Gaind 

DIRECTED by veteran Ridley Scott, ‘Body of Lies’ is a taut thriller which sees Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio as two CIA operatives on different fronts of the counter-terrorism encounters.
Playing out the life-threatening conflicts between DiCaprio, an Arabic speaking field agent in the Middle East, reporting to his Washington handler played by Crowe. Both give great performances. More appealing of the two is the former as hard-working Roger Ferris.
He gets himself involved in a complicated plan to smoke out a Middle Eastern terrorist leader who has been coördinating a series of attacks in Europe.
It’s extraordinary that Ferris is the only one CIA who has any semblance of cultural sensitivity to the nature of the war that’s being fought.
Crowe’s Ed Hoffman, as a CIA honcho who runs running Ferris by cell phone and laptop from the suburbs of Washington, is amazing to behold.
A ruthless Southerner, Hoffman is cordial enough, but for him anti-terrorism has become a calling.
The screenwriter for this tale of lies and spies is William Monahan (‘The Departed’) working from a novel by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
Much of the atmosphere and the action of ‘Body of Lies’ is familiar, with the constant change of backdrops from Washington to the Middle East – and other destinations – portraying that violence and deception are the name of the game … everywhere.
 

Centrelink’s National Support Office has hosted the first ever ‘Celebrate IT’ exhibition, to highlight the achievements of Centrelink’s Information Technology Division.

Centrelink’s Chief Information Officer, John Wadeson, said Centrelink is one of the largest IT employers in Australia, with around 2,000 staff located nationally.

“The Celebrate IT 2008 exhibition provided a great opportunity for us to showcase the state-of-the-art IT systems that allow us to serve millions of Australians on a daily basis,” Mr Wadeson said.

“Distributing more than $63 billion in financial support to 6.5 million customers each year is no small feat.

“IT is such an integral part of Centrelink’s business because it supports staff in providing efficient and effective services to customers.

“I’m proud Centrelink’s IT capability gives the Australian Government confidence in entrusting us with such a significant portion of public money.”

Centrelink is also one of Australia’s leading IT users, ranked forth in Australia for the size of IT network distributions.

"Our IT program is at the cutting edge of technology, particularly in the area of security and data matching,” Mr Wadeson said.

“On a typical day, the IT group will support over 30,000 desktops, 400 LAN servers and a network of 22,000 servers.

“The Celebrate IT exhibition has been a fantastic opportunity to raise the profile of our IT services as well as celebrate the success of the teams who work in this area.

“We had a visit from the Australian Government Drought Bus during the exhibition, which is a great example of the innovative ways Centrelink uses IT to ensure fast and consistent access to our systems from remote locations.

“The vehicles are fitted with Next G technology satellite phones, laptops and printers, allowing staff to assist customers in drought affected rural communities and during times of crisis, such as the Queensland floods.”

The two-day event was held in Centrelink’s National Support Office in Tuggeranong, and included demonstrations of current and future IT initiatives for Centrelink.
 

Isn’t the financial crisis worrying – and they’re making it worse by bailing out the bankers, instead of intervening in the public interest to sort it all out. I just signed this petition supporting a "buy-in" rescue package instead — it’ll be delivered to the world’s top finance ministers at the end of the week, so you might want to do the same: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue/97.php
————
Watching the markets freefall, we know this crisis will utterly change our daily lives – we’re not just spectators any more, and we are seeing something new – people and governments directly intervening in the chaos that until now was controlled by reckless and greedy financiers.

Today and all weekend, extraordinary choices will be made by the world’s most powerful finance ministers, meeting to decide our response to the financial crisis. Together, we must make sure that governments do not just use our money to bail out the banks, but claim a share of public ownership in these institutions for our future, and oversight powers to fundamentally fix the wider system.

We’ll deliver our call for a global buy-in package in 36 hours to G7 finance ministers and again to a bigger Global Crisis Summit planned for November — please sign the petition at the link below, and forward this email to everyone you know. The decisions made this week will shape our lives for years to come:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue

Three weeks ago our petition to regulate global finance was waved by Denmark’s former prime minister as the European Parliament voted. Two weeks ago our US members bombarded Congress with phone calls for a buy-in not a bailout — investing in the banks so they stop choking off capital, while giving the public a share for their money and the power to fix the system — and yesterday, as Britain launched a bold buy-in of its own, word is the United States might finally changecourse. Only concerted action by the global community can build a better system, and we can’t leave it to the financiers — so today, we’re launching an emergency campaign calling on leaders for a global public rescue to save all our economies. This is what’s needed — a ‘buy-in’ to financial institutions not a reckless ‘bailout’, massive public investment stimulus to stave off global depression, temporary guarantee of loans/deposits, and strict new regulations to fix this broken system once and for all. It’s a sensible and public-spirited package supported by progressives and expert economists alike — add your name here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue

Leading economists now agree that citizens and our governments are the only force powerful enough to solve this crisis — only the public can mobilise the investment and oversight needed to fix the financiers’ failings, get the economy moving and revive things on a sounder basis. The Great Depression of the 1930s teaches us that we cannot address this crisis with each acting alone — only by acting together can countries head off disaster.

How we respond to this crisis will shape our lives for years to come. We’re still a long way from tackling the fundamental problems of the global economy, but the tide is moving in our direction. So let’s take control of our future in the interests of people not financiers, and raise a worldwide voice across borders for a global public rescue. 3.4 million of us in every nation of the world will get this email — that’s a start. Click below to sign, forward this email to all your friends and family, and let’s raise a voice our leaders can’t ignore:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_public_rescue

With hope and determination, Paul, Ricken, Graziela, Pascal, Veronique, Iain, Brett, Milena and the whole Avaaz team PS Congratulations to all those who supported our phone and email campaign on Europe’s climate and energy package this week — it was a stunning victory, we won 95 of what we wanted and our sources say we made a big difference. More soon!